Erica Campbell

Erica Campbell edits and writes music coverage that treats artists and their scenes as stories, not just releases, with a consistent focus on how musicians live, work and connect with fans. As Music Editor at PAPER Magazine, she steers features, interviews and scene reports across contemporary pop, indie and festival culture. Her work centers on artists, live performance and the communities around them, balancing emerging voices with globally recognized names.

Artist features and emerging talent

Campbell’s core output at PAPER Magazine is artist-first features that follow musicians through specific moments in their careers. Recent stories range from profiles of The Last Dinner Party, Remy Bond and BENEE to in‑depth pieces on Lucy Dacus, INJI and Rainbow Kitten Surprise.

She uses headline framing that foregrounds emotional and creative states - “Hit Where It Hurts,” “Keeps It Timeless,” “Knows Good Things Take Time,” “on deluxe feelings, queer vows and Janelle Monáe,” “Feel It In Their ‘Bones’” - signalling narrative reporting rather than transactional coverage.

Her work regularly mixes major artists like Cardi B and Damiano David with rising names such as Honeyluv and Carter Faith, giving equal weight to craft and context. Features on artists like Ravyn Lenae and Reneé Rapp sit alongside these profiles, reinforcing her attention to vocal‑driven, story‑rich pop and R&B.

Across these pieces, she writes in detail about what an artist is trying to say, how they situate themselves in a scene, and the stakes of their next step.

Beyond individual careers, Campbell’s writing often connects artists to broader cultural narratives. Her coverage includes stories such as “Megan Thee Stallion Is An HBCU Icon,” tying music to higher education, Black culture and institutional spaces. This interest in how musicians embody and reshape institutions and identities emerges again in pieces that track queer vows, genre boundaries and artist self‑definition. She is frequently tasked with longer, feature‑style formats rather than short news briefs, which allows her to build arcs around trust, growth and the tension between industry expectations and artist autonomy. Her reporting on Phoebe Bridgers’ sold‑out Madison Square Garden benefit show follows that pattern, pairing live detail with the artist’s stance on immigration enforcement and treating fans as participants in an “internet‑free zone” rather than spectators behind screens.

Festivals, tours and live performance

Live music and festivals are a second spine of Campbell’s beat. At PAPER Magazine, she produces backstage and on‑the‑ground pieces like “Indie Rock Bliss: Backstage at Austin City Limits,” “Backstage at All Things Go NYC ’25: Candid Snaps & Chats,” “All‑Access Portraits: All Things Go DC 2025” and “All Things Go NYC 2025: PAPER’s Version.”

These stories mix candid photography with short portraits and conversations, giving a view of how performers, crews and fans inhabit festival spaces. She uses the “Version” and “Backstage” framing to signal an insider’s tour of the event, emphasizing atmosphere and relationships over set‑list recaps.

“On the Road With Carter Faith” extends that live‑angle reporting into tour travel, positioning the road itself as a site of creativity and connection.

Her festival and live work is not confined to PAPER Magazine. At Highsnobiety, she has written culture pieces such as “Feng’s Underground Is Fun,” “At Coachella, GAP Proved the Hoodie Still Reigns” and “Destroy Lonely Lives On Hard Mode,” extending her lens to brand activations and fashion in festival contexts. These stories show an interest in how clothing, sponsorships and underground parties shape the experience of live music, and how artists navigate those environments. Back at PAPER Magazine, roundups like “Lollapalooza 2026, the PAPER Version” continue this focus by treating multi‑day events as ecosystems where genre, crowd and city interplay.

Across outlets, she approaches festivals and tours as narrative worlds, using live settings to reveal artist habits, fan cultures and the look and feel of specific scenes.

Culture writing beyond the music page

While music is her primary beat, Campbell works across adjacent cultural fields when they intersect with sound and scenes.

Her Highsnobiety pieces on Coachella and underground nights tie apparel and branding directly to how audiences experience concerts and club spaces. She has written widely beyond PAPER Magazine, contributing entertainment and culture stories to outlets including Spin, Glamour, Architectural Digest and W Magazine. This broader portfolio reflects an interest in how design, fashion and lifestyle shape the worlds that artists and fans inhabit, and how those worlds feed back into music narratives. Desk‑note coverage and curated playlists associated with her work further underline her taste‑making role, positioning her as someone asked not just to report on trends but to pick and structure what listeners should hear next.

Editorial leadership and on‑camera work

Campbell combines line‑level reporting with editorial leadership. She is an entertainment journalist, host and the Music Editor at PAPER Magazine, and has previously served as Features Editor (US) at NME and Music Editor at Consequence. Alongside those roles, she has maintained a freelance slate that includes profiles and features for publications like Spin, Glamour, Architectural Digest, W Magazine and others.

Her work regularly bridges written coverage and live conversation: she has hosted on‑camera interviews with Grammy and Academy Award‑winning artists, moderated industry panels for Spotify and shared post‑punk commentary with outlets such as NPR, USA Today and SiriusXM. She has also written liner notes for Vinyl Me Please, including the print booklet for the reissue of The Strokes’ “Is This It” on vinyl, which speaks to a mode of writing that must stand up both as criticism and as archival document.

Across these roles, Campbell is described as a seasoned music editor and writer with a habit of spotting artists before broader coverage catches up, and as someone attuned to the shifts shaping contemporary music culture. That perspective flows back into her work at PAPER Magazine, where she uses features, festival reporting and culture pieces to document the evolving relationships between artists, audiences and the spaces where they meet.